Structuralist House

The design of the four indoor and outdoor levels of the ground floor promotes interactions between inhabitants and visitors. The living room, on the upper-ground floor, overlooks the kitchen-living-dining space on the half-level below. The design of the four indoor and outdoor levels of the ground floor promotes interactions between inhabitants and visitors. The living room, on the upper-ground floor, overlooks the kitchen-living-dining space on the half-level below.

Our architectural interventions greatly improve the property through modernisation—by creating compositions of abstract sculptural form and space, and discrete functional ‘furnishings’ at various scales. The spaces in the design are open to one another, divided only by a frameless glass balustrade, allowing conversations between them—particularly to and from the sitting area and dining space below— and views to the kitchen and garden beyond.

A further half-level below the lower-ground floor, the utility room is separated from the dining space by a large panel of sand-blasted glass, allowing a play of light and shadow between the two areas. Built-in shelves at this junction of three interior levels encourages users to pause, prompting interplay. A mirrored splash-back facilitates conversation between people using the kitchen and those sitting on the island and dining table behind them.

Annual CO2 emissions data (requested in kg/m2/year) was provided as follows: 11.46 tonnes co2/year.